At 15:10 (NEM time) the Victoria and New South Wales regions separated at Murray and Lower Tumut Substation as a result of the bushfires raging through the south-east of Australia (and, in particular, under some key transmission lines connecting NSW to Victoria
Here’s the view of what was happening in NSW for the 15:20 dispatch interval, seen via the NEMwatch v10 entry level dashboard:
As noted in that screenshot, AEMO (and TransGrid, the network operator) had experienced 4 separate transmission line outages over the prior 2-hour period as a result:
| Time … reverse chronological |
Details |
| 14:38 | MARKET NOTICE 072285 Notice Type ID Inter-Regional Transfer limit variation Notice Type Description MARKET Issue Date Saturday, 4 January 2020 External Reference Inter-Regional Transfer limit variation – Upper Tumut to Yass 330 kV Line – NSW Region ________________________________________________________________________________________________AEMO ELECTRICITY MARKET NOTICE Inter-Regional Transfer limit variation – Upper Tumut to Yass 330 kV Line – NSW Region There has been an unplanned outage of the Upper Tumut to Yass 330 kV Line The following constraint set was invoked at 1425 hrs 04/01/2020. N-UTYS_2 The constraint set contains the following interconnectors on the left hand side. V-S-MNSP1 Refer AEMO Network Outage Scheduler (NOS) for further details. Manager NEM Real Time Operations |
| 14:35 | MARKET NOTICE 072284 Notice Type ID Inter-Regional Transfer limit variation Notice Type Description MARKET Issue Date Saturday, 4 January 2020 External Reference Inter-Regional Transfer limit variation – 3W Capital to Kangaroo Valley 330 kV Line – NSW region ________________________________________________________________________________________________AEMO ELECTRICITY MARKET NOTICE Inter-Regional Transfer limit variation – 3W Capital to Kangaroo Valley 330 kV Line – NSW region There has been an unplanned outage of Capital to Kangaroo Valley 330 kV 3W Line The following constraint set was invoked at 1425 hrs 04/01/2020. N-KVCW_3W_15M The constraint set contains the following interconnectors on the left hand side. V-S-MNSP1 Refer AEMO Network Outage Scheduler (NOS) for further details. Manager NEM Real Time Operations |
| 13:51 | MARKET NOTICE 072282 Notice Type ID Inter-Regional Transfer limit variation Notice Type Description MARKET Issue Date Saturday, 4 January 2020 External Reference Inter-Regional Transfer limit variation – Murray to Upper Tumut 65 330 kV Line – NSW Region ________________________________________________________________________________________________AEMO ELECTRICITY MARKET NOTICE Inter-Regional Transfer limit variation – Murray to Upper Tumut 65 330 kV Line – NSW Region There has been an unplanned outage of the Murray to Upper Tumut 65 330 kV Line The following constraint set was invoked at 1350 hrs 04/01/2020. I-X_MSUT_LTUT The constraint set contains the following interconnectors on the left hand side. NSW1-QLD1 The following constraint set was revoked at 1350 hrs 04/01/2020 N-LTUT_64_15M Refer AEMO Network Outage Scheduler (NOS) for further details. Manager NEM Real Time Operations |
| 13:24 | MARKET NOTICE 072281 Notice Type ID Inter-Regional Transfer limit variation Notice Type Description MARKET Issue Date Saturday, 4 January 2020 External Reference Inter-Regional Transfer limit variation – Upper Tumut to Lower Tumut 64 330 kV Line – NSW Region ________________________________________________________________________________________________AEMO ELECTRICITY MARKET NOTICE Inter-Regional Transfer limit variation – Upper Tumut to Lower Tumut 64 330 kV Line – NSW Region There has been an unplanned outage of the Upper Tumut to Lower Tumut 64 330 kV Line. The following constraint set was invoked at 1320 hrs 04/01/2020. N-LTUT_64_15M The constraint set contains the following interconnectors on the left hand side. V-S-MNSP1 Refer AEMO Network Outage Scheduler (NOS) for further details. Manager NEM Real Time Operations We |
Here’s how this reduction in flow looked via the ez2view higher-end dashboard in the 15:40 dispatch interval:
… so it was no surprise to see the price spike to the Market Price Cap in the NSW region in the 15:45 dispatch interval:
… this will be a long afternoon…
The interesting point is that contrary to predictions it was NSW which went to $14,700/ MWh and Victorian prices went negative, indicating a strong oversupply in Victoria. At 5:25 pm after transmission was was restored, NSW was importing on all three links at limit values, power was still at $14,700/MWh and Victoria only rose to $34.
My summation is as I predicted a couple of years ago that NSW may actually more vulnerable than Victoria